HIT Workout - April 29th (Trainer's choice)

Interesting week…I told my Trainer, Chris, that this week’s workout was completely ‘his choice’.  Chris chose to give me a traditional HIT workout with either adding weight on the negatives or performing the exercise as a negative only.  He added in 3 machines I do not normally use – an Eccentrix Chin up machine, a MedX Arm Cross, and a MedX Leg Extension.  We skipped both the Pull Over and the Super Slow Pull Down machines…

 

For the exercises that I normally perform, Chris dropped the weight for the positive portion and then either stood on the stack or applied pressure to increase the difficulty of the negative portion of the exercise.   On the Leg Press his weight alone was not sufficient to tire me 90 seconds, so he stood on the stack and pulled with his arms.

 

As usual I worked out fasted and took 10 grams of BCAAs 15 minutes before the workout.  I broke my fast an hour after I got back from the gym, approximately an 18-hour fast.  Next week I will go back to the normal HIT workout and see if there are any noticeable improvements.

 

HIT	Last Workout		This Week		Kevin J Smith
	20-Apr		29-Apr
Exercise	Weight	Time (secs)	Weight	Time (secs)	Comments
Lower Back	366	90	280	90	with negatives
Arm Cross			300	3X	negatives only
Chest Press	188.5	84	120	100	with negatives
Leg Press	834	93	740	100	with negatives
Chin Up			5	3X	Ecentrix Machine
Overhead Press	290	92	180	108	with negatives
Leg Extension			300	3X	negatives only

Scorch Through Your Fat Loss Plateau

Martin Berkhan, of the Lean Gains blog, has an excellent guest post on the blog site "The Fitness Black Book".  Entitled "Scorch Through Your

Fat Loss Plateau, the article focuses on foods to avoid when you are trying to lose fat.

 

Read it here:

http://fitnessblackbook.com/diet-tips/martin-berkhan-scorch-through-your-fat-loss-plateau/

 

***Spoiler alert - avoid nuts, protein bars, and dried fruit!

HIT Workout - April 20th

Wow!…what can I say…I guess a month of inactivity doesn’t atrophy your muscles.  My last workout was 3 days shy of a month ago and I showed improvements in ALL exercises!  But I did ‘feel’ that month of inactivity - it was the hardest workout I’ve had in a long time.

The Leg Press left me dizzy and my ears ringing…then the SS pull down left me nauseous with my forearms throbbing in pain.  And the thought that I had one more exercise made me want to cry… ;-)  No, really, it was WAY hard to get back to…

                As usual, my workout was fasted with 10 grams of BCAAs taken 15 minutes before the workout.  Now, 2 hours later, I am ready for my lunch, a salad with grilled chicken, bacon, avocado, goat cheese, and EVOO.

HIT	Last Workout		This Week		Increase	Kevin J Smith
	23-Mar		20-Apr		% since
Exercise	Weight	Time (secs)	Weight	Time (secs)	initial	Comments
Lower Back	364	87	366	90	74%	MedX: 72 degrees
Pull-Over	200	85	202	86	84%	MedX
Chest Press	188.5	82	188.5	84	80%	MedX
Leg Press	832	91	834	93	54%	MedX
SS Pull down	152.5	85	153.5	86	54%	Super Slow
Overhead Press	290	80	290	92	81%	MedX